Challenge of Change

I am experiencing change right now. We all experience change but in my case it is a total change of mindset. After ten years of Live Aboard Cruising with no land base or storage facilities I now have the pleasure of a land base for storage and a cruising boat located centrally to my favourite cruising grounds. These cruising grounds are thousands of miles apart but we are in the centre.

For more information on the landbase, Ambos Mudos, we have established go to http://sustainablenovascotia.blogspot.ca/

So what is the big deal? How different could it possibly be to have two places? After working on upgrading  the boat for the better part of the past cruising season in Lunenburg I was able to return home this spring and start the process of offloading everything not necessary to the next cruise. Extra tools, extra food, extra fuel tanks, extra water tanks, clothing, charts, books, books, books, cooking paraphernalia. Dinghy after dinghy load came to to shore to be stored in the work shed or the trailer.

We had the opportunity to empty out the original Easy Go and we were absolutely amazed at how much we had collected while cruising on her. We promised ourselves to be more careful with the present Easy Go but failed miserably.

While working on the boat here I don't have to put everything away to cook or sleep. I can just stop at the end of the day and start over tomorrow. Meals and sleeping in Ambos Mundos are saving prep time.  Washing bedding, clothing and the covers from the settees, while never an easy chore, is easier with unlimited fresh water, a clothes line and not having to get everything completed during the daylight hours.

Her waterline is now higher and Easy Go is prepared for cold weather high latitude sailing for the summer. At the end of this cruise I will return to Ambos Mundos to offload the majority of the cold weather gear and convert the boat over to warm weather tropical gear for the winter before heading south in November.

The permanent mooring is a joy. No launching and retrieving the anchor while I'm here. Saves a lot of wear and tear on the ground tackle and makes day trips considerably easier and more enjoyable.

These changes are providing the contrast in life that we originally set out to find. We have found that all the changes in our life have involved the completion of circles.

Another circle closed. Another circle begun!